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Watch This: Gillette Campaign Draws Heat

(Photo Credits: Screengrab from Gillette’s YouTube Channel)

Gillette’s new advertisement “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be” that tackles toxic masculinity has gone viral. The netizens’ reaction was split with others praising the ad’s message while critics of the campaign threatened to boycott their products.

The latest Gillette advert, which was under 2 minutes, features bullying and shows boys fighting, some men sexuality harassing and catcalling women to name a few. All throughout the advert, a voiceover can be heard saying, “We can’t hide from it. It’s been going on far too long. We can’t laugh it off. Making the same old excuses.”

Halfway through, the ad changes by showing men with positive behavior like those who are stepping in and breaking fights. “But something finally changed, and there will be no going back. Because we, we believe the best in men, to say the right thing, to act the right way,” the voiceover says. “Some already are, in ways big and small.”

Here’s what the netizens are saying:

Some are saying Gillette’s campaign is “feminizing men,” others say it “equates masculinity with men behaving badly.” Others on the other hand, say “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be” is a great advert which highlights specific behaviors. What about you guys? What do you think about the campaign? Comment below!


There are 27 comments

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  1. Marko

    As if the unjustified high price alone kept me from buying a name brand razor.
    Right or wrong, I really question the wisdom of corporate America straying into the thought police arena.
    Thanks Gillette.

  2. J

    Men are ruled by hormones…always on the prowl, always seeking the next conquest, always the aggressor (good, bad or indifferent). Women are always the object of desire. This is simple animal behavior. It takes a conscious effort not to behave this way and that’s what the guilty men lack.

  3. Darryl

    I don’t understand the issue about the commercial, many will call it a PC moralistic pipe dream. My opinion is when you see something going on that’s wrong, don’t be afraid to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. Teaching young boys, and girls that you don’t have to pick on someone else, to make yourself feel good. There are so many things that can be learned from the commercial, the thing is putting good values in play, to make attitudes change for the better. We can no longer look the other way, when we see behavior that used to be considered no big deal.

    • greg

      Hi Darryl: your overwrouht regurgitation of the malignant vomit espoused by proctor & gamble is sycophantic and disgraceful. clearly you’ve enjoyably gulped down their cool-aid as they’ve happily gulped down your dollars for their sweat-shop made, obnoxiously over-priced, product.

      vertical integration will clearly show you that although King Gillette’s vision was pure in helping the common man, first in Boston- then in the world, this multinational mega conglomerate amassing billions in revenue quarterly has a more dastardly vision and pathetic corporate responsibility demarkation. overtly, with your hard earned money this P&G subsidiary onslaughts you, albeit shames you, demeans you and lays you out bare as an unacceptable pathetic meaningless worthless piece of s#!+ and you lap it up as gospel.

      you may have a secret desire to be castrated, of which i am unsure, yet please take a moment to reflect and appreciate that the now almost 50 plus year war on boys and purposeful emasculation of the western man must end. for if it does not, rest assured those in the occident shall soon enough with ease be ruled by those from the orient…no matter which generation this putrified gillette message is spoken to.

      so STAND UP and PROUDLY BE A RESPECTABLE MALE HUMAN! thanks……all the best, Greg

  4. Old Soldier in the South

    It looks like Gillette is getting way more name recognition, secondary media boost, and overall chatter, than the ever dreamed possible. In that, this is probably a good ad campaign (although the proof will be in sales). I don’t buy shaving products based on PC propaganda. I buy what gives me the best shave, lasts the longest, and fits what I can afford (with the ballooning price of razors & other shaving geat, my choices are more limited, every week..

    GENTLEMEN:
    NEWSFLASH–IT’S JUST A BLOODY ADVERT! Does anyone think the developers of this ad are REALLY the advocates of genuine, authentic & congruent heroic manhood?
    PUH-leez! Put a real hero (aptly enough, given the 10 year anniversary of his heroism–Capt, “Sully”, for intance) delivering the same message, and it MIGHT influence some man’s behavior.

    Otherwise, I admire their cleverness in this asymmetric ad campaign, buy the razors I can afford, and do my best to follow The Golden Rule..
    And not waste further time musing about a bloody advert. And what some pedantic poseurs my be shrilly tweating about it.

  5. anonimatovato

    Being a man means not being a sexist prick! Who ever thinks this ad makes men seem ‘feminine’ (which is a very homophobic attitude if you ask me) for standing up for what’s right or not being a brutal a-hole always wanting to start fights, bullying people, acting homophobic as fuck, wanting to beat gay men, having rapey creepy attitude to women (or in our case) even to gay men if you’re considered ‘hot’ is part of the problem. And yes some gay men have these stupid machismo ideas. Even on gay porn that shit is real. Especially the tops in those films treat bottoms brutally and like sex object to deposit well you get the point. It’s 2019 for crying out loud! Glad a company that’s catered to men is talking about this. Honestly I don’t care if you guys dislike my views and then call me a snowflake lol!

  6. Casper

    At-the-end-of-the-day, the AD serves its purpose: it stirs the pot and creates controversy. Therefore, the means justifies the end.

    It is a reflection of a consumer oriented economic system where demand must be created to justify the supply.

    There isn’t anything insidious about the AD as anyone with matter between the ears would already understand the advertising forces at work.

    The real threat is Americans do understand either their culture or their economic system and culture is the ‘total way of life’.

    • Casper

      Does not anyone understand why Western Civilization is predicated on ‘male-dominance’? It is declared in the Old Testament:

      Eve was created from the rib of Adam; hence,…from man comes woman. To create the word woman, you simply add the wo to man…likewise, to create female, you add fe to male.

      In listing the Subject Pronouns, the prescribed order is: I, You He, She, It; We, You, They.

      Latin reflects this as the Romans were a paternal society where the male sex was recognized as superior; in Ancient Egypt, society as matriarchal; therefore,female was superior and Pharaoh married either his sister, mother, daughter, etc., to gain legitimacy.

      Western Ethics are predicated on The Ten Commandments as was Hammurabi’s Code and the Egyptian Book Of The Dead.

      Ethicsl is law; morality is Religion. The Ad in question taps into all of the aforementioned and creates controversy; hence, it serves it purpose and it legitimate…not ‘Politically Correct’. One is not the same as the other…although, both are on the same street…just at the extreme ends.

      • Barry

        Hammurabi’s code was written before the 10 commandments. It is not based on them.

        Further, your attempts to use language as defending male dominance is very English-centric. Your example of wo-man breaks down if the language is, say, French.

        • Casper

          Barry:

          It is not written in stone, exactly, when Hammurabi’s Code was codified? So, we both could be off. Furthermore, we do not know, exactly, when the 10 Commandments were codified, either.

          The prevailing ‘Mindset’ was already there and so, different Peoples codified equivalents.

          Using language as an example has been done many times before; hence, I became aware of it as ‘examples’ and used them…accordingly.

          In-the-end, Barry, six of one; one half dozen of the other… .

  7. Lamar

    It seems women have always had to teach ‘males’ how to be gentlemen towards them. We all, have: grandmothers, aunts, mothers, sisters, women-friends, do you want them to called bitches, beaten, strangled, raped, enslaved, all-around mistreated? Of course not. Only, the best and cream of the crop will rise to this new ‘correcting’ standard masculinity, the rest won’t be gettin’ any, aight! The only ones whom would object, are the ones that are abusive and prefer, objectification and victims of their punk-asses.

  8. Hunter0500

    Read an article from the BBC this morning. It said that globally, Gillette is receiving overwhelming (like about 9O%) negative feedback on the ad.

    For me personally, the add reinforces the negative notion that men in general are sexist, bullies, homophobic, inconsiderate, bigoted, selfish, etc. Well, of course a small percentage are. Women and every group in the LGTBQ+ Community have their own percentages, as well.

    As as an older guy, I can say that I have found negative behaviors to be few and far between over the decades. Whether in family, work, or social situations. I have chosen to address them, as well as not, as those few situations dictated.

    But, no Gillette. I don’t agree with the ad. It portrays men in general badly. It comes across as a desperate Marketing ploy to bring attention to its name to stop the losses it is now seeing as competitive, more cost-effective products have flooded the market after years of its providing insanely high-margin products to customers.

    Marketing gurus in the past have said “attention to the Brand is good. Sales will increase.” In the past, Marketing knew what topics to address, and how.

    90% negative, says the BBC. We’ll see how Gillette’s Marketing’s move play$ out for Gillette.

    • Dave

      pretty sure their sales will go up. The bible belt and older men might think it’s offensive, but millennials and guys in big urban cities like NYC or LA will surely buy more… The target in this ad was clearly Millenials. What they got as coverage is calculated in billions of dollars…

  9. Biff

    Beta males are the target demographic. By the responses it would seem that the goal was achieved. Change the name of the product to Wimpz R Uz and be trendy

  10. Bill

    This ad is insulting. Most men already know how to behave. Imagine if the ad was talking about terrorist bombings, but said only “some Muslims” know better. We would all rightly be denouncing it as bigoted. The same is true of this ad. A good reason to never buy Gillette products.

  11. Groot

    No problem with the ad IF…and this is a huge IF…Gillette had also run an ad attacking the non-self-reflective, unjust, cowardly, bitchy, misandrous feminists, who on a daily basis actually do NOT perform as well as a man, while claiming a wolf-whistle has damaged them for life which happened 54 years earlier.

  12. Lamar

    @ Casper, I love your input; so speaking of what’s in the Bible, all “ain’t necessarily so.” Racism/slavery was justified as such. “The rib taken from Adam” then Adam must been ‘African’, watching the Hist-ch one afternoon, a historian surmised what “Adam & Eve” would have looked like, they had Afros, clearly, African! No that blond-blue thing we’ve all been programmed to worship, if you’ve ever seen the original depiction of Jesus, he had big beautiful brown eyes, wooly-type brown/black hair. Like everything else, religion has been so very corrupted to benefit
    those in power not the masses of people, but, you know that already.

    As far as the ad, look towards Buddhism: “cause & affect” see what that means to you…

    • Casper

      Hello, Lamar:

      I watched the AD and understood what it was saying and why. Whomever set up this AD understood how to get the public’s goat and get it well.

      The AD is well done and makes it point, succinctly and expeditiously. It serves its own purpose and justifies its existence.

      It is harmless as long as the viewer understands its message?


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